My 6 year old was practicing piano today and suddenly started to sing a song she learnt at school whilst playing the melody.

She has on the odd occasion tried to play simple tunes by ear, twinkle twinkle etc but not to the success of today's attempt! She only had to correct herself on a couple of notes, maybe where the big intervals were.

I was really chuffed for her as she does find this piano business all quite tricky So I wondered whether singing alongside helps to pitch where the notes are on the keyboard?

I would say definitely yes!

I had hoped you would reply! Thanks, I'll get her to do lots of that over the holidays.

That sounds like excellent progress! A lot of adults cannot get the link between playing a melody and singing (including me sometimes where my voices decides to come out in a different key to what I am playing on piano or guitar).

Working out a tune by ear is a really useful skill. In a couple of years if she can do the next step of harmonising the melody too, then she'll be well on the way to being one of those "You hum it and I'll play it" type players (I can almost do it on occasion, but maybe I should have started piano earlier!)

My daughter (who is 4) loves singing songs, and loves playing the piano, but she hasn't yet linked up that the melody she sings and the melodies she plays (or I play) are the same. I'm hoping she'll get it in the next year or so.

N